Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida, millions told to evacuate

After hitting Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the northern coast of Cuba, Irma has trained its sights on Florida where officials have warned more than 5 million people that time is running out for them to evacuate ahead of the deadly hurricane as it followed a path that could take it from one end of the state to the other.

By late Friday, Irma had regained Category 5 strength with winds of 260 km/h, before dropping to Category 4 again with winds of 249 km/h early Saturday.

Forecasters expect the storm to be near the Florida Keys on Sunday morning and approach the state’s southwest coast by that afternoon. Where once it was tracking up the centre of the state, it’s now shifted to the west, threatening cities like Fort Meyers and Naples with dangerous storm surges.

The adjusted forecast would mean a less costly, a less deadly storm,” for the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people, University of Miami researcher Brian McNoldy said.

Nevertheless, forecasters warned that its hurricane-force winds were so wide they could reach from coast to coast, testing the nation’s third-largest state, which has undergone rapid development and more stringent hurricane-proof building codes in the last decade or so.

“This is a storm that will kill you if you don’t get out of the way,” National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. “Everybody’s going to feel this one.”

Palm trees sway in the wind prior to the arrival of Hurricane Irma in Caibarien, Cuba on Friday. (Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Irma killed at least 22 people in the Caribbean and left thousands homeless as it devastated small resort islands known for their warm, turquoise water.

Many people were left reeling after the storm ravaged some of the world’s most exclusive tropical playgrounds, among them: St. Martin, St. Barts, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla.

Two boys walk in a flooded area in Fort Liberte, Haiti, on Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. (Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

The dead included 11 on St. Martin and St. Barts, four in the U.S. Virgin Islands, four in the British Virgin Islands and one each on Anguilla and Barbuda.

Direct hit to Cayo Coco

Irma came ashore as a Category 5 storm late Friday at the popular resort town of Cayo Coco in Cuba’s Ciego de Avila province, said CNN reporter Patrick Oppmann, reporting from Caibarien, just to the west, in Ciego de Avila province.

“The meteorological equipment used by the Cuban governemnt to determine the wind speed was broken by this powerful storm,” Oppmann told CBC News.

In Florida, gas shortages and gridlock plagued the evacuations, turning normally simple trips into tests of will. Parts of interstates 75 and 95 north were bumper-to-bumper, while very few cars drove in the southbound lanes.

“We’re getting out of this state,” said Manny Zuniga, who left his home in Miami at midnight Thursday to avoid the gridlock. “Irma is going to take all of Florida.”

Despite driving overnight, he still took 12 hours to reach Orlando — a trip that normally takes four hours. From there, he and his wife, two children, two dogs and a ferret were headed to Arkansas.

Motorists form a long line to get sandbags at Kissimmee, Fla., on Thursday to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Irma. (Gregg Newton/Reuters)

In one of the country’s largest evacuations, about 5.6 million people in Florida — more than one-quarter of the state’s population — were ordered to evacuate and another 540,000 were told to leave the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for people who did not leave. Hotels as far away as Atlanta filled up with evacuees.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said people fleeing could drive slowly in the shoulder lane on highways. He hasn’t reversed the southbound lanes because he said they were needed to deliver gas and supplies.

“If you are planning to leave and do not leave tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk,” Scott said.

Tony Marcellus racked his brain to figure out a way to get his 67-year-old mother and 85-year-old grandfather out of their home five blocks from the ocean in West Palm Beach. He lives 600 miles away in Atlanta. He checked flights but found nothing and rental cars were sold out, so he settled on a modern method of evacuation.

He hired an Uber to pick them up and drive them 270 kilometres to Orlando, where he met them to take them to Atlanta. He gave the driver a nice tip.

Damage from Hurricane Irma in Orient Bay on the island of St. Martin. (Lionel Chamoiseau/AFP/Getty Images)

Several small, poor communities around Lake Okeechobee in the south-central part of Florida were added to the evacuation list because the lake may overflow — but the governor said engineers expect the protective dike to hold up. Many people in the area said they wouldn’t leave because they either had no transportation or nowhere to go.

Disney World parks will close early Saturday and remain shuttered through Monday, as will Universal Orlando and Sea World.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he planned for enough space to hold 100,000 people before the storm arrives, although most shelters were only beginning to fill on Friday.

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 revealed how lax building codes had become in the country’s most storm-prone state, and Florida began requiring sturdier construction. Now, experts say a monstrously strong Irma could become the most serious test of Florida’s storm-worthiness since then.

Andrew razed Miami’s suburbs with winds topping 265 km/h, damaging or blowing apart over 125,000 homes. Almost all mobile homes in its path were obliterated. The damage totaled $ 26 billion in Florida’s most-populous areas. At least 40 people were killed in Florida.

CoreLogic, a consultant to insurers, estimated that almost 8.5 million Florida homes or commercial properties were at extreme, very high or high risk of wind damage from Irma.

Police in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Davie said a 57-year-old man who had been hired to install hurricane shutters Thursday morning died after falling about 15 feet (5 meters) from a ladder and hitting his head on a pool deck. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released.

Forecasters predicted a storm surge of 2.4 to 3.7 metres (8 to 12 feet) above ground level along Florida’s southwest coast and in the Keys. As much as a foot of rain could fall across the state, with isolated spots receiving 508 millimetres (20 inches).

With winds that peaked at 300 km/h, Irma was once the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic.